Economics Faculty Meeting

28 April 11

Agenda

1. Announcementsa. Budget update

b. Senior thesis lecturer position

c. Graduate student recruiting

2. Undergraduate program report: core-curriculum assessment

3. Election of representatives to college committees

UPC report

Learning goalsMicro learning goals1. Recognize the concept of comparative

advantage, and relate the concept to the way in which specialization and trade can create mutual gain

2. Demonstrate how market prices and quantities are determined in a supply-and-demand framework, and explain how changes in either supply or demand (or both) affect market price and quantity

3. Employ the tools of marginal analysis to make and analyze decisions (or outcomes) at the individual, business, and societal levels

4. Measure buyer (and seller) responsiveness using the concept of elasticity, and relate elasticity (for both price-taking and price-setting firms) to pricing outcomes

5. Distinguish the conditions under which self-interested behavior leads – and the conditions under which it does not lead – to efficient and/or socially-desirable outcomes

Macro learning goals6. Describe the basic indicators of

macroeconomic performance, differentiate between real and nominal variables, and recognize their approximate empirical magnitudes in the US

7. Express the basic sources of – and limits to – economic growth

8. Illustrate how an economy’s potential volume of production is determined and allocated in the long-run

9. Demonstrate how and why the volume of production can deviate from its potential level in the short run

10. Identify and assess macroeconomic stabilization policies

UPC report

Data collection and reporting• Each instructor is expected to include a reasonable number of questions relating to

each of the appropriate objectives. For ease of data aggregation, the assessment procedure will be limited to large classes that use multiple-choice testing procedures.

• After a semester in which a learning-objective assessment is taking place, at least some instructors of large 2105 and 2016 classes will be required to submit to the UPC a table that the economics learning objectives relevant for the particular class, the number of that class’s exam questions that relate to each specific objective, and the percentage of correct answers given by BBA students for the questions in each specific category.

• Each instructor will also be required to submit a few examples of questions that are matched to each learning objective.

• It is left to each instructor to decide whether the summary statistics will include relevant questions from the final exam alone, from exams given during the semester, or from both types of exams.

• If an instructor includes one or two questions that demand an especially high level of analysis the instructor can choose to omit answers to those questions from the summary table.

• The information provided by each instructor will be aggregated into a single set of figures that will be the basis of the department’s report to the college.

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